1st & Ten

- Season 5

(1988)

The team becomes embroiled in a messy situation when a clean-cut fast food chain with decidedly familial values purchases the Bulls. The players concoct a plan for the team to gain joint ownership of the team themselves, leading to divisive reactions amongst personnel.

The unruly Bulls roster attempts to get a grip on their shenanigans, to spearhead a successful and tasteful ownership of their beloved team. Things are more complicated than they would have thought, when the players show their true, unpredictable colors in the face of great change.

Pandemonium ensues when the draft commences, leading to speculation and paranoia that some of the Bulls' most beloved personalities are on the trading block. They realize they may be in over their heads when there is distracting anxiety breathing down their necks the night before and morning of the draft, and the various teams in play taking advantage of the first time owners isn't helping.

The questionable choices of the various Bulls catch up with them when Mad Dog makes a promise to an aspiring cheerleader which he was unauthorized to make and T. D. attempts to recruit a former player to join the coaching staff.

The players' unpredictable yet hilarious antics continue as the group tries to make sense of their new roles as players within the Dodds Corporation ownership of the beloved franchise. Mad Dog gets caught in a series of lies and Joe comes into harsh proximity with one of the new owners and his classist prejudices.

After getting concussed from taking multiple brutal hits on the field, the Bulls' quarterback fantasizes that his coach's colorful halftime pep talk is actually from a Vietnam War general, amping up his troops for the second half of a major battle.

A slew of relationship dramas plague the Bulls players, with T.D. attempting to court the league's first female player, Cooper realizing that the woman he is having an affair with is married to the team sponsor's president, and more. What proceeds are on and off-field brawls, the first NFL play featuring a female player, and a whole slew of hilarious miscommunications.

The Bulls organization and their sponsor's corporation are embroiled in a public controversy when the head coach is purported in the media to have made a racist statement, though the allegations are embellished and misrepresented at the very least.

The roster of the 1987 California Bulls reunites to take a legacy group photo, although the futuristic dystopia they currently inhabit has proven to be consequential -- plateaued and more depressing than the one they played in.

The Bulls face a series of personal predicaments. Bubba is locked out of his fumigated home, Ernie reconnects with a former flame who turns out to be wrapped up in an inescapable football gambling horror and a player is on the chopping block but his good looks have attracted T.D.

The team adjusts to having a hugely famous track star join the team, much to the chagrin of an aging wide receiver whose job may be on the line, given the new celebrity addition to the roster. Tensions rise between Bubba and his wife, as well as between T.D. and King's wife.

With their perfect season contingent on another win, the team places an accentuated emphasis on the coming weekend's big game. Dr. Death juggles taking care of a young abandoned boy, Jethro and Bubba cater to a disgruntled chef's needs, and, making matters worse, a shady pair of Miami-based gamblers are set on sabotaging the Bulls' operation from the inside out.

As the Bulls fly to their next destination, they each mull over their respective fears to keep their undefeated season and hopes for a championship alive. Sparks fly with ownership representatives, who fight for the upper-hand in negotiations and company favor.

Joe Namath makes a documentary on the championship-bound California Bulls, including interviews and candid moments with the characters and personalities we've watched grow into established men and winners on the field and off.